EU Provisionally Agrees on Law That Would Force Apple to Allow Alternative App Stores, Sideloading, and iMessage Interoperability

[MacRumors]

European lawmakers have provisionally agreed upon a new law that would force Apple to allow user access to third-party app stores and permit the sideloading of apps on iPhones and iPads, among other sweeping changes designed to make the digital sector fairer and more competitive.

The European Council and European Parliament said on Friday they had reached a political agreement on the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which will target many of the services offered by tech giants and force them to open up to other businesses.

Today's announcement focuses on services like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and iMessage, which will have to "open up and interoperate with smaller messaging platforms, if they so request," according to the EU. "Users of small or big platforms would then be able to exchange messages, send files or make video calls across messaging apps, thus giving them more choice."

Under the proposed DMA, Apple would also be forced to open up its App Store to third-party payment options instead of users having to go through Apple's own payment system – something it fought hard against in the Apple vs. Epic Games trial.

In addition, Apple would have to allow users to uninstall its Safari browser and other stock apps so that they can replace them with third-party alternatives if they so wish.

The DMA's broad scope also features several other demands that tech companies will have to abide by and which would surely impact Apple's services and platforms on multiple fronts. According to the proposed law, companies with a value of more than €75 billion ($83 billion), annual sales of €7.5 billion, and at least 45 million monthly users will meet its "gatekeeper" criteria, which comes with the following obligations and commitments.

Gatekeepers Will Have To:

• Ensure that users have the right to unsubscribe from core platform services under similar conditions to subscription.
• For the the most important software (e.g. web browsers), not require this software by default upon installation of the operating system.
• Ensure the interoperability of their instant messaging services' basic functionalities.
• Allow app developers fair access to the supplementary functionalities of smartphones (e.g. NFC chip).
• Give sellers access to their marketing or advertising performance data on the platform.
• Inform the European Commission of their acquisitions and mergers.

But They Can No Longer:

• Rank their own products or services higher than those of others (self-preferencing).
• Reuse private data collected during a service for the purposes of another service.
• Establish unfair conditions for business users.
• Pre-install certain software applications.
• Require app developers to use certain services (e.g. payment systems or identity providers) in order to be listed in app stores.

According to the DMA, if a gatekeeper violates the rules laid down in the legislation, it risks a fine of up to 10% of its total global turnover. For a repeat offense, a fine of up to 20% of its global turnover may be imposed.

If a gatekeeper systematically fails to comply with the DMA (or violates the rules at least three times in eight years), the European Commission can open a market investigation and impose "behavioral or structural remedies."

The European Union has had to impose record fines over the past 10 years for certain harmful business practices by very large digital players," said Cédric O, French Minister of State with responsibility for digital. "The DMA will directly ban these practices and create a fairer and more competitive economic space for new players and European businesses. These rules are key to stimulating and unlocking digital markets, enhancing consumer choice, enabling better value sharing in the digital economy and boosting innovation. The European Union is the first to take such decisive action in this regard and I hope that others will join us soon."

The wording of the legislation has yet to be finalized, but once the language is in place, the European Parliament and the Council will need to approve it. The regulation must be implemented within six months after its entry into force. Digital competition chief Margrethe Vestager said today that she expected the DMA to come into force "sometime in October."

Should the Digital Markets Act go on to become law, Apple will have to make major changes to its ‌iPhone‌ and ‌iPad‌ platform to accommodate the requirement to allow for non-App Store apps. Apple said it was "concerned that some provisions of the DMA will create unnecessary privacy and security vulnerabilities for our users."

Apple is also facing similar legislation in the United States, with U.S. House lawmakers in June introducing antitrust bills that would result in major changes to the tech industry if passed.

Article Link: EU Provisionally Agrees on Law That Would Force Apple to Allow Alternative App Stores, Sideloading, and iMessage Interoperability

 

[Kylo83]

I’m glad the uk left the EU

 

[Starscape]

Looks like I’ll be importing a Euro-model iPad next year.

 

[ruka.snow]

Some stuff here I don’t personally agree with but I do agree with the basic principles. I am unsure how the UK will react, we have lost so many of the consumer protections from the EU already and are moving more and more isolationist.

 

[coredev]

Looks like I’ll be importing a Euro-model iPad next year.

Ah ... you think that these new (potential) legislations are built into the hardware?

 

[MysticCow]

Well, here comes the plethora of "New App Store for iPho--OOPS! WE STOLE YOUR CREDIT CARD!"

PS--Yes, there will some purely legit ones also.

PPS--It is sad the previous Postscript needed placed.

 

[Macropanda]

Some of it I get, but I can't wrap my head around the problem with a device having default apps. Just have a page upon the first opening of the App Store saying "you have the defaults but here are some others".

If the problem is Safari getting an unfair advantage over Chrome then how to you get Chrome without a default App Store app?
Do you present a list of options upon the initial setup of Safari/Chrome/Firefox etc? But then that's an unfair advantage to those browsers when there are other ones out there.

 

[4jasontv]

Paved with good intentions.

 

[m.x]

While there are many good ideas, like being able to cancel a subscription easier (I once subscribed to the NYT and had to call them from Germany to cancel the subscription - never again!), I’m really interested how on earth the message interoperability should work. I use Signal and iMessage. How can Signal still be secure and end to end encrypted if it has to be able to work with WhatsApp?

 

[kalsta]

In principle, I support governance that restricts the power of big business. But who is going to restrict the power of the EU? This just sounds way too heavy handed to me. Frightening actually.

But can I still say yes please to ‘iMessage interoperability’? ? Would be nice to see the big players work together on this.

EDIT: To clarify, I do not actually agree with what the EU is proposing. What I would like to see, is Apple and Google work together to create one default secure messaging platform that works on both iOS and Android. There is no technical reason why they could not do this if they wanted to.

 

[clayj]

Seeing as how no one actually IN the European Union makes smartphones, Apple ought to tell the EU to get bent.

 

[coredev]

Some of it I get, but I can't wrap my head around the problem with a device having default apps. Just have a page upon the first opening of the App Store saying "you have the defaults but here are some others".

If the problem is Safari getting an unfair advantage over Chrome then how to you get Chrome without a default App Store app?
Do you present a list of options upon the initial setup of Safari/Chrome/Firefox etc? But then that's an unfair advantage to those browsers when there are other ones out there.

Exactly. Let alone the fact that this works against the ease of use of an Apple device that most of their customers love so much. Me personally, I don't want multiple pages of selection lists to set up my new device. The current ones for FaceID, Siri, iCloud are more than enough already. Where possible, I click "Set up later" to get it over with.

 

[krspkbl]

Seeing as how no one actually IN the European Union makes smartphones, Apple ought to tell the EU to get bent.

apple isn't going to quit EU lol

 

[minimo3]

Pretty simple to comply on paper: on first boot allow users to pick full iOS or a custom, stripped-down Darwin kernel with no security provisions. Third parties can feel free to build their own window manager, file system, App Store, browsers, services for it. Philosophically something akin to AOSP - with great freedom comes great responsibility to build your own everything (to install apps users clone a git repo, modify the source themselves if they wish and make the binaries using gcc or clang on device for the ultimate In customizability)

 

[ashdelacroix]

Some stuff here I don’t personally agree with but I do agree with the basic principles. I am unsure how the UK will react, we have lost so many of the consumer protections from the EU already and are moving more and more isolationist.

Utter, utter nonsense. We have lost none of our consumer protections and much consumer law in the UK is based on principles that pre-date anything the EU has introduced in recent years. Please, please don't spout more anti-UK rhetoric based on "feeling" rather than fact.

 

[coredev]

Paved with good intentions.

As in the opposite of good, right?

 

[Macropanda]

As the tech guy of the family, im not looking forward to the barrage of issues this will cause when my parents/grandparents can't figure out why things aren't working, why they needs apps from all different place, why things aren't syncing between devices etc.

For the Apps, the phones work fine as they are.

 

[jimbobb24]

Politicians running around ruining things they didn’t build and don’t understand.

 

[alpi123]

Pretty simple to comply on paper: on first boot allow users to pick full iOS or a custom, stripped-down Darwin kernel with no security provisions.

This does sound very much like what Apple could do.

 

[ashdelacroix]

apple isn't going to quit EU lol

No, but it could have a two-speed system in which the EU doesn't get all the services and features that US, UK and RoW get.

 

[R2FX]

Very dubious definition of markets and competition, reads more like a punitive regulation drafted by spiteful bureaucrats without understanding how tech & security work.

I wonder how much regulation would be too much for Apple to swallow before saying “thx, but we will no longer be doing business in EU”?

 

[boss.king]

Ah ... you think that these new (potential) legislations are built into the hardware?

Knowing Apple, they’ll be region locked. Look at the Apple Watch’s ecg stuff.

 

[jlc1978]

It will be interesting to see how Apple responds as well as the impact on other companies who now fall under the law. One consequence is things Apple now provides developers for free may wind up costing money. For example, signing apps or charging per d/l on the App Store. Will a developer be willing to give up the App Store for a 3rd party one with a fraction of the base? Or go to the trouble and cost of maintaining an alternate way to get their app?

I suspect a lot of whack a mole over the next decade or so if this passes.

 

[boss.king]

Pretty simple to comply on paper: on first boot allow users to pick full iOS or a custom, stripped-down Darwin kernel with no security provisions. Third parties can feel free to build their own window manager, file system, App Store, browsers, services for it. Philosophically something akin to AOSP - with great freedom comes great responsibility to build your own everything (to install apps users clone a git repo, modify the source themselves if they wish and make the binaries using bcc or clang on device for the ultimate In customizability)

That’s how you get a fine.

 

[coredev]

In principle, I support governance that restricts the power of big business. But who is going to restrict the power of the EU? This just sounds way too heavy handed to me. Frightening actually.

But can I still say yes please to ‘iMessage interoperability’? ? Would be nice to see the big players work together on this.

This messenger interoperability will lead to crippled functions and a least common denominator mentality. As much as the EU always claims to advocate for the customer, I doubt that this is what the customer wants.